Drive Wire: September 23, 2015

Hey guys, it’s Christina Thompson, and this is Drive Wire for Wednesday, September 23rd…

There’s still plenty of breaking news concerning Volkswagen’s diesel debacle. To recap, VW claimed their four-cylinder diesels burned clean with just filtration. Turns out they lied… and cheated. VW used illegal software to make the engine appear to burn clean during testing. But in reality, the emissions were over 40 times the legal limit provided by the Clean Air Act.

Up to 11 million cars are affected. And the Environmental Protection Agency could fine VW up to $37,500 per car. With that in mind, VW has set aside over $7 billion to address the scandal. VW stock plummeted by about 20 percent on both Monday and Tuesday, and VW USA head Michael Horn may have summed it up best, saying quote “we totally screwed up.”

The Jeep Compass and Patriot are finally getting replaced. Prototypes of the new compact crossover seem to be heavily influenced by the Grand Cherokee, which sports a distinctive, off-road look that sets jeep apart. Look for power to come from Jeep’s 2.4 liter four-cylinder and possibly a new 2.0 turbo unit. All-Wheel Drive Trailhawk models are almost certainly planned as well.

Turning now to gadgets and gear news… we previously mocked the flying selfie stick because the thought of drones hovering overhead taking selfies felt.. A little ridiculous. But we have nothing but praise for the Trident-Tethered underwater camera drone. The open ROV Trident seeks to make underwater exploration accessible to everyone, goes for three hours on a charge and is controlled by your tablet or laptop. The Trident is expected to retail for $1200, but won’t be available until November 2016.

Today’s ridiculous video is, yes, an advertisement for Ryder Systems, a truck fleet company… but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them destroying a robot-powered semi truck before they rebuild it. In order to dismantle the truck, they throw everything from tire spikes to a wrecking ball at it. Who doesn’t love a little goodhearted demolition?

That’s it for today’s edition of Drive Wire. Be sure to come back to thedrive.com for more and follow us @thedrive on all your go-to social media platforms.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that 11 million Volkswagens equipped with 4-cylinder TDI engines were undergoing a recall. They are merely affected; a recall has yet to occur. The transcript of this video has been changed to reflect this.